Our parents do a great job of introducing us to the world, teaching us how to survive, and sharing their likes with us. My dad taught me to love a lot of music that most people passed off as garbage from the 70s. He’s why I went to see Phantom of the Opera when I had just turned six years old, and he’s the reason I know who Pink Martini is. Being a trumpet player, he’s always loved hearing how others play the brass instrument. Que Sera Sera was a song his mother always sung when he was a child, so it held a special place in his heart. Pink Martini performs their own version of this song on their debut album that is completely unique to them, with a pretty creepy trumpet solo. Needless to say, he quickly grew to love the musical style of Pink Martini.

The concert started off with an instrumental piece showing off the skills of each band member. From the very first song in the concert you see the camaraderie between the trumpet and trombone players, which leads to some fun back and forth later on. It was a fantastic way to introduce the band, which was then followed with China Forbes coming out and absolutely nailing the beautiful Let’s Never Stop Falling in Love. We were then treated to Thomas Lauderdale’s (the band’s pianist and bandleader) story of how the band started. It’s somewhat important to know that Lauderdale was once a politician, as throughout the concert there are a couple jabs made at certain political parties. These may or may not land, depending on the audience. Other than these, the majority of dialogue is used to discuss the songs they’re playing, what they mean (many are in languages you probably don’t speak), and why they were written.

If you’re a fan of audience participation, I can’t emphasize enough that you should attend one of these performances. For each song that was based on a language from another country, they invited people up to come help sing. We had members of the audience that went up to help with the Turkish and Greek songs, although I only heard the Turkish fella sing, and the crowd went absolutely nuts. I’m sure it’s a night he’ll never forget. People were invited on stage behind China to both sing and hold hands as she covered Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman, which she prefaced with how important the song is, especially at this point in history. The band also encouraged getting up to dance for their more upbeat songs, and even had a conga line go around the band on stage during their encore with the dance inspiring Brazil.

Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of audience participation. I’m there to see the performers, not someone that paid to see them, but this wasn’t too bad. Part of that is because the audience age was skewed to the older range, so people couldn’t be overly obnoxious, but there were a few people that did hinder the experience a bit after Lauderdale made a point of saying we weren’t rowdy like usual. There’s nothing quite like someone behind you imitating a trumpet in your ear.

While the concert was pitched as a holiday spectacular, the amount of holiday songs were limited, which was nice. I love their holiday album, but I was pleased to hear many of their other hits alongside them. Quite honestly, they played every song I’d want to hear minus Que Sera Sera. There was one point where Lauderdale stood up asking for a request, but I don’t like yelling in people’s ears, so we got the ever hopeful Hang On Little Tomato, which was inspired by a Heinz ketchup ad from years past. As a side note, the Armenian song Ov Sirun Sirun really brought Timothy Nishimoto to the forefront of the concert, and every time he was visible on the stage he stole the show with his enthusiasm and dancing.

If you’re looking for a music experience unlike most others, you should definitely see Pink Martini if you have the chance. Think of a lounge orchestra, and then multiply their skill level by at least ten times with the ability to sing in multiple languages. There is so much energy on stage which is then passed to the audience through their music, and it shows with so many people dancing through the aisles. You’ll certainly get your money’s worth, whether you know the songs beforehand or not.

9 out of 10

Pink Martini: Holiday Spectacular was seen at the Chico’s Laxson Auditorium and was put on by Chico Performances on December 8th, 2017. We were not provided the tickets to see the performance. For more information on Pink Martini, visit their official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth your time, but probably not on the more expensive end of ticket prices; 8-10 is a great concert that you can feel confident about spending your money to see. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate music, please let us know.

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